Toilet Paper

I am so tired that I am out of toilet paper and don't have the energy to go to the store and buy some. I think I would have the energy if it was just me and I didn't have to tote Holden along with me. Even if I did have to take Holden it would be okay if it wasn't so cold. How sad is it that the thing keeping me from going to the store is having to put on Holden's coat? Okay, it's quite the process to get to the store anyway because I have to load him up, drive at least 15 minutes each way, wrangle him into his coat in the backseat of the car, take him into the store, find what I'm looking for, and then take him out of the store, load stuff into car, wrangle him out of his coat, load him into car, and then drive home. All by myself and pregnant. It's not very fun. I'm not sure how I'm going to do it with two kids in the winter next year.
The problem is really probably that I'm pregnant and everything I do takes so much energy.

Once I'm no longer pregnant it will most likely get slightly easier for me to make trips. The funny thing is that I don't ever want my wonderful husband to run errands either because A) he buys waaaay more than is on the list--generally using his trip to the store to go over his personal agenda and see what we "need" for the house, like a copy of the movie Braveheart or something. And B) I struggle with just wanting him to be home faster so that I can get a break from watching Holden like a hawk.

But other than the toilet paper shortage at my house everything is great. Tony got a FREE kennel from a guy at work and it is really really nice and big. Probably over $500 new. I'm not sure why he gave it to us for free, we were going to pay for it, but then he just decided the day he brought it to us that it was free. We're going to have to do something really nice for him! And this week we also got our tax return...apparently babies are a gold mine when it comes to taxes. I did not know this.

Honestly

I was thinking last night about how crazy I make myself sound sometimes when I write on here. But the true reason I do it is because 1) It's honest and 2) I know that telling you how great my life is isn't very interesting reading--so to avoid the "I have a great life and great husband and child" thing constantly I try to mix it up a bit. I mean, I do have all those things, but I'm sure you would tire quickly of hearing about them too much! So I offer you the juicier tidbits in order to have you come back and read more.

I would like to let everyone know that there is a new salon in Lincoln and the owner is my hairdresser and she is fantastic. All the "good" pictures of me that I post on here directly relate to her because every time I leave the salon I ask Tony to take a picture of me--because I know my hair won't look that good again until I go back in 3 more months. So if you're looking for a new hairdresser (there are others in the salon too) try Estella Salon. It's down on 9th street across from where PO Pears used to be. And if you decide to try it, tell Ashley that I sent you! Also, I will note that this is not a solicited advertisement, I just truly think you all should try the place. I don't know what other services they offer as of right now because she just opened and I haven't been there yet. I'm sure they do waxing and such too (see previous post about waxing).

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Alumni

Every year my old high school has an alumni basketball and volleyball tournament where all the old folks get back out on the court and try to regain the glory they once knew. It is not pretty. But it is fun to watch. Lots of people look forward to it every year because every year after the games on Friday everyone goes out and gets shit-faced and reminisces about the old days. Good or bad. But most people who didn't like high school don't come back anyway so it's mostly good.

Let me preface this by saying I am just about the most jealous person ever. And I'm not sure why. I have never had a reason to be, I just am. So I don't like going to the bar for one reason and one reason only. My wonderful husband's high school ex-girlfriend is always there. To be quite honest she seems like a really fun girl--the kind of girl I would want to be friends with, and probably have a lot in common with. But the simple fact that she once ahem...dated my husband (I think you all know what I mean here) always throws me for a loop. Not sure why, it was like 10 years ago!

This year I can't go to the bar anyway because the smoking ban doesn't go into effect here until June...so being pregnant I must simply go home and take care of my baby boy while Tony goes out and parties with the old friends. But he really enjoys that sort of thing more than I do anyway. And he can crash at a friends house so I don't have to go and pick him up in the wee hours of the morning. It's probably better that he not have to put up with me and my jealousy this year anyway.

Go class of 2000! Hope they win the old man bracket this year!

I registered for a class today. I'm not quite ready to divulge the rest of my plans, as they can (and do) always change, but I am pretty excited about it. I get a little bored mentally when I'm not in school. But I still love staying home. So I start my class on April 3rd and get done in June. I won't take any more classes then until next March so I will have a long break in between.

I looked into daycare if I were to be in school full time (3 days a week/6 hours per day) and found out it would cost $550 a month! For part-time daycare! Am I out of the loop or does this seem like a lot for part-time daycare? I think I should look around some more...or start saving my money now. There has to be a cheaper alternative than that (I hope).

Today I also went to a consignment sale called NeatRepeatz (don't even get me started on people intentionally spelling things the wrong way. It may be my biggest pet peeve). It wasn't a very good sale and I was disappointed because I kept hearing from everyone how great it was. Everything was overpriced. $5 for a used outfit? Come on! I can buy a new one for $6 at the Carter's outlet store! And they weren't gently used either. Maybe others had better luck than I did, but I didn't find a thing there. And I'm usually a great bargain shopper.

As I sit here on my comfy couch (with no back cushions because of the dogs) listening to the wind howl at my windows I realize how lucky I am. My husband is in the other room holding my baby until he falls asleep. After he had a long day of work, he cooked me dinner, played with Holden, gave him a bath and is now putting him to sleep. Granted, I didn't exactly have an uneventful day but I do realize how lucky I am to have a husband like that. I know many aren't.

Even so, I still get cranky (we both do). Even though I know how good a job he does and tell him so we still both have our moments almost every day where we get cranky with each other. He bitches that I don't like to sweep up the pile of dirt after I sweep the floor (hard to bend over like that when preggo). And I bitch that there are always dishes in our sink no matter how many times I run the dishwasher during the day. Of course these are trifles, but I guess we don't have anything big to fight about at the moment. Although I do think that after awhile even the small stuff tends to get to you if you don't have a break.

I guess what I'm wondering is, aside from getting a housekeeper is how are chores divided at your house? I think in some ways it is all about how you grew up. My dad did most things at my house...well all things since he was a single parent, and Tony's mom did everything since she was a single parent. So we both grew up watching the opposite role do all the work. Thankfully we tend to fall into easy roles, except for a few minor exceptions: scrubbing the bathtub, taking out the trash, and occasionally the dishes. The only reason the dishes get thrown in there is because when men cook apparently they use EVERY SINGLE dish in the house. How this is possible I do not know. Perhaps all the professional great male cooks just have dishwashers (as in people) to do their dirty work for them so it doesn't matter how many dishes they dirty. In any case I dislike doing dishes after my wonderful husband uses the kitchen. Even with a brand new dishwasher it is still a major chore.

And then with the trash all I think is: It's a man's job to take out the trash. Don't ask me where I got this notion, I really have no idea. Maybe it's because I can't recall having to take out the trash at all until after I reached the age of 18. Maybe I did it, but I sure don't remember having to do so.

So anyway, after almost 4 years of marriage these are the chore sticking points that have remained. We usually trade off on the scrubbing the shower but when I'm pregnant I have a good excuse not to do it--the fumes and bending over like that. :) But that excuse can only last so long and I will be back to it again.

I can't complain too much because my two sweet boys are sleeping peacefully in the other room and I didn't have to do a thing. It's nice to have such a good husband.

"bare" with me

So I'm wondering about the current economy and, well, lady business. I'm giving fair warning that since this is my blog you're just going to have to bear with me here if you don't like the topic. Or you can just not read this particular one. Either way I have been mulling this over in my head for at least a few months so I had to write about it.

I know a few ladies out there who like it...well lets just say bare. So my question is if a Brazilian wax costs at least $60 a month to maintain how can you really justify over $700 a year on that kind of...maintenance? Painful, expensive, and pardon me but according to at least a few men I know--totally unnecessary.

I have certainly always been a fan of other painless and cheap methods of hair removal. I do have to say that I think wax is the way to go on the eyebrows. You can't get a clean line without waxing (in my opinion) your eyebrows. But really, seriously...is anyone inspecting that closely down there? And if anyone is thisclose the lights are off--or at least dim, right? RIGHT?

So what's the current obsession with looking like a prepubescent girl? I'm not saying I think we should go back to the 60's or 70's as far as hair growth goes but I am a frugal woman and this topic just blows my mind.

Save your money and buy a razor, ladies.

Pacifier addict

So my sweet little boy finally (and I mean FINALLY) started sleeping through the night a couple weeks ago. He still occasionally wakes up at night but for the most part has been sleeping all the way through (yay!). So I thought I would talk a little bit about being a NEW mommy and sleeping (or not sleeping as the case may be).

One of the most difficult things I found about being a new mommy back almost a year ago was that when I actually was able to get to sleep for literally only 45 minutes at a time I would wake up in a sheer panic or have dreams that my baby was suffocating in bed with me (I never slept with him when he was under 5 months old). And if by some miracle my mother in law had time to stay overnight and stay with him for a few hours so I could sleep, I would wake up in so much pain from being engorged that I would want to get up to feed him. But all you new mommies, it does get better and I can't say when you will get a full nights sleep but you will stop waking up panicked eventually.

Lucky for me next time I'm bottle feeding from the very beginning so woo hoo! I will have Tony switch off and on nights with me. At least for the first couple weeks.

Also, in other news little baby girl Jacobsen has started moving around alot lately.

I can't write more right now, but I will leave you with a picture of my little pacifier addict in his crib.

Sorry for the delay

Sorry that I haven't posted on here in 2 1/2 weeks but I had a small problem with my laptop after I spilled juice all over it. Luckily since we bought the "insurance" at best buy it was all covered to replace the keyboard. But it took 2 weeks. And then I took half a week to get there and pick it up. So hopefully I didn't lose all my readers by now. :) All three of you.

Chemistry

Okay, so was anyone really surprised by the Bachelor season finale last night? I wasn't. It was completely obvious that he had waaay more chemistry with Molly. So why did he choose Melissa first? I think it was because he wanted to be 'safe' since he got divorced the first time he was married. But the safe choice isn't always the good choice.
Is there a part of me that wanted Molly to tell him to go to hell when he asked her to take him back? Yes. But then again I am kind of a romantic and so I thought it was cute that she said she would discuss it with him.
If you don't watch the bachelor that wouldn't have made sense to you, but not much more is going on around here. I have a new friend and that's where I watched it last night, and she is a stay at home mom with one kid and one dog. And her house was very very clean. It made me feel quite guilty actually because Tony walked in last night to muddy dogprints all over the floor (in my defense I did mop, it was just a losing battle yesterday), and he also walked in to toys strewn about the living room. And I left almost immediately after he got home so that I could watch the bachelor at a friend's house.
I do think it would be easier on everyone if we would just crack down and get the entire house babyproofed. My only excuse is that we have been busy. I think I'm going to make sure something gets babyproofed today. Holden just laughs when I tell him no. I know he knows what it means and I fear that I have a long and harrowing couple of years ahead of me trying to keep him out of trouble.
So today I have been trying to clean my house, but don't really feel like I'm getting very far. Hopefully it will be a noticeable difference by the end of the day.

Babies & Juice

Ok, let me preface this by saying I don't really think you should give kids juice. And then I will tell you why I did today. I don't think you should give kids juice because it isn't as healthy as water and has lots of calories. If you are going to ingest calories I do believe that they should be solid food (like fruit instead of juice). And also, I spilled juice on my computer keyboard today because I was trying to bribe Holden into drinking from a cup. So now my right enter and shift keys are sticky. Since my hubby works in electronics and we also have that stupid $250 "insurance" from best buy for our laptop I'm not terribly concerned about it, but it is annoying to have my keyboard smell like V8 V-fusion. I'm probably making it worse by typing. I promise though, after this I'm shutting down the computer and not using it until the keyboard is clean again.
I also wanted to say congrats to Amanda, I know she reads this blog sometimes and I'd like to welcome little Baby "G" to the world (that's obviously not his name but I don't know if she wants him all over the worldwide web)! I know you probably won't be checking this because you will be incredibly sleep deprived and all you want to do when you're not feeding the little guy is fall into bed and catch an hour of uninterrupted sleep. I feel your pain.
Okay, signing off for now, I may or may not have a good keyboard tomorrow so we'll see if I'm around. I hope you all take the time to enjoy the season finale of 'The Bachelor' tonight! I know I will (guilty pleasure).

2000

Last night we went out with a bunch of people we graduated with (WH and I graduated in the same class but are not high school sweethearts). It was so much fun even though I couldn't drink or anyting. It's always nice to catch up.

I did notice how much older we are now! No one wanted to stay up past closing and most of us barely made it that long! I think WH was really the only one who could have stayed out longer because just as a general rule he is always the last to leave a party. I'm posting a pic of me and a few of my old friends. There were more there, but I'm following my good picture rule and this is one of the better ones.